AndrAIa

Out in the parking lot of Dot's Diner, several binomes are re-creating "TrueStories of
Mainframe". Two particularly bad actors (binome Ones) are playing the part of
Dot and Bob from the end of "The Quick and the Fed". Zeros play the parts of
Enzo, Megabyte, Hack and Slash. Mike the TV is playing back this story in an
attempt to cheer up the real Enzo. Next week's episode will be a re-creation
of "The Crimson Binome". Dot asks Enzo why he doesn't go outside and play.
"Who with?".

Bob is in the game cube fighting the same ice planet as in "The Tearing". The other players in the game are not really helping. After the game, a dejected looking Bob
wanders into the Diner, followed by two binomes who had "helped" in the game.
The One is wearing William Shatner's hairpiece and the Zero kept saying "make
it so" and "engage". But Bob is so busy berating them for making stupid moves
(such as setting off a planetary detonation while still inside the planet)
that he misses Enzo's approach.

Bob can see Enzo is unhappy. "He hasn't got any friends because there aren't any small sprites left in Mainframe since the Twin City was destroyed," says Bob. This statement
pains Dot, causing her to think of her father. "It wasn't his fault, Dot. It
was just an experiment that got out of control". [Cecil is confused by the
bald binome asking for "tea, Earl Grey, hot".] Frisket isn't around; he's a
feral dog, and could be doing anything. (Enzo imagines the dog helping the
Crimson Binome in a swash-buckling pirate battle.) "And it's all Dad's fault!
If he didn't have to leave with all the sprites I'd someone to play with."

Bob follows Dot's suggestion of giving the binomes a refresher course on how to survive a game. [A Zero, in a blue uniform, wearing a hat that says "Elwood".] A female Zero
in pink lace winks at Bob with "I love you" on her eyelids, much like the
first Indiana Jones movie. A One with wild hair and toolbelt asks how many
types of game sprites there are.

Aggressives - attack Mainframers (knight with mace)

Defensives - try to block everyone (carrots with swords)

Chaotic - attack anything, User and Mainframer alike (Skullipede)

Passives - usually reveal hints about the game (face above door)

Artificial Intelligence - change their programming based on the
player's actions.

At the end of the lecture, Bob tells the students to read the first five chapters in the README Room [more dialog from Raiders of the Lost Arc]. Dot and Phong show up to talk
about Enzo's problem. "Having no one his age to play with is really getting to
him," says Bob. Again, Dot looks very pained by this. Phong has a schematic
for a robot friend. Just then a Game cube descends in the Baudway sector, on
top of Dot's Diner.

Enzo has been told to not go into a game without Bob or Dot along, but was not told to get out of the way if a game cube comes to him. Everyone else clears out (including
"Where's Waldo" and a big Five).

Inside the game cube is completely underwater. Enzo reboots into a Captain with an eye patch, inside a brightly colored flatfish submarine. Dot has silvery-blue skin, gills
on her throat, red eyes, a long mermaid's tail, shiny blouse, and Poseidon's
Triton. Bob's skin is dark green and blue skin, silver eyes, a long tail like
an electric eel, and gloves. Bob thinks to himself "Dot looks really amazing.
What a babe!" Dot scowls, then smiles, "I heard that." (Their game personas
are telepathic.) Dot's weapon can create a nasty vortex or a piranha mine. Bob
can grow spikes from his glove to unleash an electrical blast. They have to
stop the User from getting to the lost treasure of Atlantis. "Nice tail"
thinks Bob. "I heard that!" "D'oh!".

As a nasty looking shark submarine drifts past, a game sprite unleashes a throwing-star starfish. The small weapon knocks a hole in the side of the User's vessel, but does not
disable it. It responds by sending out a depth charge that leaves the game
sprite floating helplessly (with a big hole). Just before the User's torpedoes
hit, Enzo swoops by and scoops up the player. "Pick on someone your own size,
you big bully!". Bob gets in front of the shark, distracting it with
electrical blasts, as Dot produces a piranha mine just in front of the shark's
fins. Upon contact, the mine releases a school of ferocious piranhas, which
quickly reduce the submarine to a skeleton.

But the game is not over. The user has multiple lives, 15 to be exact. "This is bad, very bad" says Dot this time. And Enzo's friend wakes up, hissing and threatening the
boy with sharp spines.

Bob and Dot keep destroying the User's submarine, over and over, without much enthusiasm. Enzo comments on the game sprite's cool spines (they're not poison, just
paralyzing) and introduces himself. Her name is AndrAIa. She yells for quiet,
then commands Enzo to turn to avoid the wolf eels up ahead. As Bob tries to
slow down the User (Dot is running out of power), Enzo regales AndrAIa with
tales of being a Guardian. The two youngsters meet up with the User, and
quickly take it out with manta rays and sting rays, but have to duck into a
side cave as the User is reincarnated.

Dot and Bob swim into
some red-stained water, and are surrounded by organic sharks. After some close
calls, Bob sticks his four-foot long spike straight up. Everyone is surprised
to when a shark swims straight into the pike and cuts itself in half. The
remaining sharks bug out quickly. But with the sharks gone, there is nothing
to stop the User. Luckily Enzo's submarine collides with the User's before it
can get to the treasure. Bob and Dot try to swim to the treasure, but get
caught in the arms of an iridescent octopus.

Enzo is upset; his
ship is damaged and they don't make it in time they will all be nullified. He
has to explain this concept to AndrAIa, and that's when Enzo realizes she is a
game sprite. There's no way they can be together - she will disappear when the
game cube leaves, win or lose. "But we can be together," she says, as she
pokes him with a paralyzing dart. AndrAIa removes her icon (a triangle with
the letters "AI" on it) and then shoots Enzo out of the ship in a torpedo. The
unmoving Enzo reaches the treasure before the User; game over.

Dot and Bob rush up
to Enzo, who is dejected at having lost his new friend. "What's this on your
icon?" It's AndrAIa's icon. When Bob touches it, the girl pops into being. She
had downloaded a copy of herself onto Enzo's icon, and the game cube let her
out. Now she can be with the little Guardian and his friends. But first, a
sheepish Enzo has to explain why AndrAIa thinks he is a Guardian.